The Beast and the Monster
by Darkling221
Summary: This is a story, based on the classic french tale of Beauty and the Beast, only this time, there is no literal beauty...
1. meanings

There are many things in this world that can not be explained

There are many things in this world that can not be explained. Such as the cruelty of the human mind, some one could be so cruel or misunderstood; they could be referred to as a monster. But what if one was born monster, born a beast. They could not have been cruel to begin with; no one can be like that. But year after year of receive painful scars from metaphorical knives that, can turn someone into their name sake. It is cruel. But that is the way the human mind works. And monster can't be that different from human. As they are just the same, wolves in sheep's clothing.

But that definition lies cold and dark in the mind of a beast. The beast resides in dark castle that he can not leave and I am not being metaphorical here.

We will not start there; no one likes a sad beginning. So I shall start with something on happier note. I will start with colourful village. Every one likes villages. With cute cottages and nice little people, I tried to find a place I could refer to for such a place. With no luck. This is village, small and harmless, with some nice house and a lot of small cracking ones, with bustling streets that smell of fish and straw. They have some nice people here. Not all of them are nice though. If you go down a lane just past the flower shop and turn left at Willers Lane you will find a house. There we shall begin!!

Lee hummed to himself as he made some orange juice and coffee. He always did this at five o clock in the morning. The drinks weren't for him either. He made them for Tenten and Neji. He used to get up at five and go for a run, he'd come back at seven and every time he did Tenten would ask-demand him to make her orange juice, as it was the only way for her to get out of bed in the morning. In turn he made coffee for Neji. Lee was not the brightest pee in the pod, but he knew how not waist time. So he did it before he left and dropped it off in their bedrooms, nearly breaking his neck on the mess in Tenten's room every single time, never spilling a drop!

As Lee step out the door the cool air hit his face. It was nice. Calming. He smiled as he took off for a run around the village and into the forest. He had been living with his friends for quiet awhile now. It was nice, he wasn't so lonely anymore. His uncle had gone to compete in a track tournament and was yet to return. So his friends came over to keep him company and never left. Then again he didn't expect them too as soon as he opened the door to let them in.

As he past his normal road threw the forest, thinking about what he would be making for some form of edible food that morning. He ran head long into a tree. Again. Lee sighed as he looked up at the offending tree. Why did trees hate him in this area? It was always these trees; he was good with other trees.

'And now I am contemplating about my relationships with trees,' he sighed. Something was wrong with him. He stood up and was about to continue running, when he noted a path.

'Never seen that one before.'

He would have gone down it. He would have gone to investigate this awesome looking path that seemed to try and lure him in with its awesome fog and awesome creaky braches. His inner adventurer was simply begging him to go down it. But he heard the chimes of the town and knew if he didn't get home soon, Tenten would make breakfast. Neji would never forgive him for the pain in his stomach that they both had to endure every time they ate her food, out of sheer fear of the wrath of a woman with a mission.

'Hey Lee, shouldn't Gai be back by now? It's been two months now.'

'I know, I was concerned about that myself,'

Every one was sitting around a small, round table with food in front of them which, to Lee's and Neji's relief was made by Lee this time, but Tenten would get her chance….

Lee stared absently at his plate. His uncle was never late. It was something rude that shouldn't be done. That and it showed you were not eager and there for did not posses the power of youth! This was something Lee was certain Uncle Gai did not want to portray.

'I am going for a walk, excuse me,' and he left, his plate almost full.

'Lee you haven't been eating right, that's not good for you,' Tenten said this with all the concern of an older sister, who was concerned because it was going to reflect on her in the end. But Lee knew she was trying to help, he did not like people worrying about him.

Neji didn't question him, he nodded. So Lee left with out a word.

Lee walked. He didn't even know were he was going. All he knew was that his feet were taking him on path they must have known as he had yet to bump into anything.

CRASH!

Scratch that. He knew were he was before he even looked up. The trees always hated him in this area.

He looked up and glared at the tree. He would just love to cut it down; it would be a shame as it was an amazing tree filled with youth and vigour!

Lee was about to walk on. When he saw a path, the same path that he'd saw this morning!

'Yosh! See that inner adventure, plotline follower, simply over powering thing that seems to be in my mind! We can go down that path now!' Lee said enthusiastically pointing down the simply awesome path.

So he did.


	2. twisted

Chapter two

Chapter two.

Lee walked down his awesomely thrilling, youthful path. There seemed to be only one straight path, but the trees conspired to make it look otherwise, daring their 'opponent' to try and find a faster way. The trees towered over him; their creaking, bare braches shaped themselves into clawed hands. The fog swirled up around Lee's ankles. Any other person would have been forced away by this greeting. Any other person would not have gone down this awesome path to begin with. But, Lee was enjoying himself. His heart was pounding, his breath seemed to freeze his lungs, and shivers were running up and down his spine. He felt light. It was marvellous, it made him feel…alive.

Lee smiled as he continued, making sure he took in all the path and forest surrounding it had to offer. People often told him he was a freak for looking for thrills such as these. Well, he thought the same thing about the fools who used drugs, yet did you see him pointing fingers?

Lee walked for what seemed like a long time, but it was fun, easy. It didn't take as much out of him as normal life seemed to.

'Just remember which way you came,' he told himself.

SMASH!

'Damnit'! WHAT IS **UP** WITH YOU TREES! HAVE I DONE ANYTHING TO YOU!'

He was about to scold the tree for being rude when he felt something watching him.

Lee turned to find out what was looking down at him, and it was a lot bigger than any tree he'd yet seen in his life.

There in front of him were two very large, dark, ominous, gates. They seemed to tower so far above him that even the greatest mountain climber would never be able to climb it.

But then again those trees…they seemed to behind everything so far. Maybe they were trying to scare him again by making the gates as tall as they were.

'Great, I am now contemplating how a tree could be and evil genius.'

Lee looked up at the gates, which could have very well been taken from hell. Then he looked past them.

His eyes went wide at the sight of it. Tall, dark, cold. Were the first adjectives to enter his mind. There were too many shadows. They seemed to encircle the castle that stood behind the gates.

Pushing that gate open did not require a lot of force on Lee's part, which was strange. Wasn't a gate used to keep people out? This one seemed to want Lee to come inside.

This was slightly off putting, even for Lee. But, curiosity won again.

What surprised him was how cold it was. Today it had been a nice warm day. The sun was shining; it was the beautiful picture of the springtime of youth. But as soon as he'd stepped past the gate it had become freezing. It felt like it was going to snow.

As he drew closer to the castle, two stone statues became visible. He squinted and ran up to them to get a better look.

They were standing on either side of a huge set of stairs like guards waiting for the enemy to move. One of them looked like a female holding a giant fan splayed out behind her, like a peacock's feathers, the other a male that seemed to be holding out something akin to a mummy. What struck Lee was how real they looked. He could have sworn they had the potential to get up and move.

He wondered, if he stepped on the stairs, would they move? Their eyes seemed to be on him wherever he stood. Then again, he'd seen paintings that did that. So maybe this place was all about fright rather than force. Taking a deep breath he took one step...and found that it was safe to continue up the stairs.

When he reached the large doors at the end of the stair way he opened them with ease. Everything seemed to open too easily. This was puzzling. Not that long ago he had been at home, now he was in front of a castle that opened far too easily! Something was wrong here…

'Two visitors in three days. My, my this is strange.'

Lee whipped around to try and find the person who had spoken. The voice had been cold, heartless, and completely monotone.

Lee's eyes widened at the sight he saw. The person…the creature looked to be made of some form of hardened sand. Its colour was dark yellow and it had the worst posture he had ever seen in his life. The creature was arched over itself, arms dangling pitifully in front of its thin body.

It's funny. Neji had once told him a spook's story about a demon that lived in a castle in the forest. His name had been Gaara of the Desert. But Neji needed to get his facts straight, because what was standing in front of him was by no means male.

When the creature looked up he could see a face that could not be mistaken. It was a woman or a girl. She had long hair and everything! Then again, Neji had long hair…

'Are you Gaara of the Desert?'

Lee knew one thing. The only thing about the girl that was not made of sand was her eyes, as they had now just widened.

'Um. . . No, sorry. Can't say I am. Why? Was he expecting you?'

'No, I was going for a walk and I fell down this path by accident. The trees,' Lee stopped himself from going into his theory about the evil mastermind trees. The sand creature would probably think he was out of his mind.

'Ahh yea I get ya. Oh those trees and the squirrels.'

'No! Squirrels are nice, cute, little animals.'

_I am talking to a Sand statue that speaks really monotone …I am officially insane_, he thought.

'Hey, you know what. You look like that other man who stumbled in here. His name was Guz, or Guy or-'

'Uncle Gai!!'

'Yea that's the one'.

'Can you take me to him?' Lee asked politely, bracing himself to resist any attempts to keep him from his uncle.


	3. seeing

"Follow me," she said gesturing with a sandy hand down that dark corridor that seemed to disappear into darkness

"Follow me," she said, gesturing with a sandy hand down that dark corridor that seemed to disappear into darkness.

Lee had seen many strange things in his life, he had seen Neji on a Green Cordial high — an ominous thing indeed— and Tenten trying to work the computer. He'd even seen his uncle naked! Lee was amazed he was alive after that incident. Yes, Lee had seen many scary and odd things before. But never had he ever seen a sand creature climb stairs. It had to be the oddest and funniest thing in his life.

Once the sand-girl-thing led him to a winding stone staircase, she said, "things maybe a little messy from here." Lee thought she meant he'd have to fight…not get sand in his eyes.

She fell forward and turned into something like a dust cloud with only her arms and head showing. She glided up the stairs, occasionally using her hands to boost herself up from the steps so she didn't get a face full of stone.

Lee watched curiously as he walked, careful not to step on her, behind the sand-girl- thing—_aahh_!

"Um, may I ask what your name is?"

"Mother"

"Pardon?"

"Mother, that's my name."

Mother? Did Gaara of the Desert have a mother? He supposed that the monster had to come from somewhere. But this, this thing, it looked quite young as far as Lee could tell…but then again, he _couldn't_ quite tell. Her figure and face weren't very clear. She was made of sand for Christ's sake!

The only thing that could be heard through the empty silence was the sound of Mother's sand, or Mother as the case may be, moving along.

Suddenly she stopped, making Lee almost step on her. She reformed into her original shape…that posture was absolutely terrible.

She then pointed a slightly deformed finger to a dark cell.

"Uncle!"

His uncle looked up from behind the bars; face was full of happiness, then anger.

"What are you doing here? Get out before he finds you!" he said, clearly panicked. He kept glancing toward Mother as if she would suddenly lunge at them both.

"Uncle, what are talking about? I'm here to take you home."

"Don't you think I would have gone home earlier if they would have let me?!"

That was true…but that's what they always said in movies! Not that Lee watched many. But that's what they did…all the time.

Lee was holding his uncle's hand in a vice-like grip; it was all he could do as he thought about everything. Mother could easily turn into an annoying enemy very fast in this situation. Lee didn't know if he could get past her if she did as she was very close to the exit. Lee looked around; the room was made almost entirely of grey stone bricks. The bars of his uncle's cell stretched from one side of the small room to the other. There wasn't much else. Even if he_ did _get past her, he wouldn't know if there was more of her kind. For all he knew she could have been created by Gaara! He did control sand after all.

"Mother," he addressed the sand mistress over near the door. "Would you let us go if we asked? Or are we both prisoners now?"

Mother simply looked at her feet. "I am not the one to decide that,"

Lee took note of her glowing eyes, visualizing the problem in big bold letters. Suddenly, she was nothing but sand and forming a tornado of sorts, bellowing sand everywhere, forcing Lee and his uncle to cover their eyes.

"That is my decision."

The voice this time was male. The emotionless tone echoed of the empty walls, just like Mother's.

He lowered his arm to see something even odder than something made entirely out of sand, which was pretty odd in its own right.

This…person, monster, beast, thing had grey skin on his face with white going down the middle and forming a circle around the nose and mouth. His entire body was grey, though his arms seemed to have grey hair on them instead. He had the tail of a raccoon dog and, from what Lee could see under a long white kilt, feet like one too. But the hair on his head was red, and he had the kanji for _love _on his forehead.

Yes, that was all fine and dandy, but that's not what Lee saw first. He saw bright, lime-green eyes encircled with what looked like black eye makeup. They were sharp and cold. They were eyes of a monster. That and he….had large racoon ears! How cute!

Lee took a wild guess and said, "Gaara of the Desert?"

"You seem smarter than you look," was all the creature said on the subject of his identity. He moved forward and Uncle Gai's grip tightened on Lee's hand.

Gaara raised a clawed hand and caught Lee's chin. "Why did you come here when you would only be caught along with the person you meant to save?"

That had not been Lee's original goal in the beginning." He had just stumbled upon it. He blamed the trees!

"I have a request, a deal you might like to…consider." Lee said, looking up to uncaring eyes, trying not to look at the unclothed chest just centimetres from his own.

He earned no reply but a facial gesture to continue and worried glance from his Uncle.

He took a deep breath and…

"What would you say to keeping me," he gulped, "But letting my uncle…free?"

"LEE! No!"

Gaara's face changed so suddenly Lee hardly saw it. But he did. He saw misunderstanding.

"Very well," he said. His voice held neither heart nor care..

"Mother, take the other away, take him far."

Lee was then thrown into Uncle Gai's cell as Mother, who seemed to suddenly re-enter, took him away. Kicking and screaming, "No! Lee! No! I'm sorry! I will find you again!! I promise!"

Then he was gone in a flourish of sand.

Lee curled up against the stone wall of his cell and proceeded to hate himself.

Hours later, Mother returned.

"My master says you are welcome to stay in the guest chambers," she said as she opened the lock on his door…with her hand.

"Why?"

She didn't answer. When the door swung opened Lee stood up, dusted off his knees and butt, and waited to follow.

But Mother didn't move. Lee looked around confused for a bit, then Mother lunged forward, Lee moved to his fighting stance, but all that hit him was light sand. Then the dungeon was gone.

When Lee woke up he did two things. One; acknowledge that he had been transported by sand and was now in a large, highly decorated room. Two; realise that Mother was no longer there.

"Well, that was crazy."

"But I wish I'd had the time to ask Mother a question. I wanted to know why the hell Gaara of the desert is a raccoon dog?"


	4. Frigid

Right well this is awkward…I don't think I've updated this in years but I figured I might as well try now. I don't know if people are even still reading this or are going to read it. But I figured I might as well try.

IF you DO read and find any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes (though their shouldn't be too many of those). Please let me know, I'm trying to improve and I'd love to improve. Even if you think a sentence would sound better structured differently or something. I'd like to know. Thank you

Chapter 4:

Gaara stared out the window, his fingers gently touching its icy surface. To anyone else the frigid glass would have stung their fingers, but with his thick coat of grey hair Gaara only distantly noticed that it was cool to the touch.

Why had he allowed that exchange? Was it simply that the other man had been so annoyingly loud and obnoxious that he'd wanted to get rid of him while still sending a threatening message?

No. No, Gaara knew why.

His fingers slowly slid down the windowpane, leaving a light trail of water that stood out starkly against the frosted glass. He was lonely.

A curse was not something to be enjoyed. When he'd first fallen victim to it he'd thought-

His fingers tensed against the window, breaking the once even pattern.

He first thought the curse had been trying to kill him through the torture of his siblings. Gaara's eyes had been steadily staring holes in the backs of his siblings' statues on the staircase. He'd sat out there for so long at the start, staring at them, completely at a loss for what to do. How to fix this mess. For a time it seemed he'd sat there for an age.

But no, now he was several life times older than he had been then. This form, it was only to ensure that no human would ever come near him and vice versa. The curse was designed to crush him from the inside out.

Gaara's sanity had only been kept intact through books. Though in all honesty, Gaara's sanity had never been all that stable to start with, but it was thanks to the millions upon billions of books he kept in this very room that he was still even functional. His eyes briefly left the solute of his siblings to glance around his collection. For a time this room. That chair. Had been his life. He'd moved from one book to another at a record pace. Desperate to escape his own world. Eventually he'd been able centre himself with breaks. Exit the world of the book and actually live for a tiny while outside them. It was the way he functioned; small gaps of his true life would sneak in, but only between one book and another.

During this time he acquired food and more books. His library had contained more books than anyone could possibly be expected to read in a lifetime, but Gaara by this point had lived several life times in his frigid space. So by the cover of darkness he left his sanctuary and ghosted into the surrounding villages. He collected his food, which was meagre and would not keep a regular human alive.

He was after all surrounded by villages that were small and poor and it wasn't like he had any current currency to pay with, just pieces of gold. The only exception to this rule was the bookshops. Who seemed to have, over the years, accepted that a mysterious visitor would raid their store at the dead of night. And so long as he kept leaving chunks of gold and a list of what he'd taken they didn't say anything. It was a good system in Gaara's estimation.

But now with this new human in residence things where bound to get a lot more complicated. Gaara wasn't sure of this for a fact. But he assumed that this human would need to eat more than once a week. Even when he'd been human himself he had never eaten very much. And the curse now ensured that he would never get to die of his own accord.

And he was also pretty sure that the human would want to eat more than just instant foods he scourged and the occasional rabbit or deer he managed to slaughter. In fact he was pretty sure, from what he remembered, that regular humans needed to eat at least twice a day and at least a few of those meals needed to contain meat.

He'd fed that previous man bits of crusty bread for a time, along with random bits and pieces he had lying around. He hadn't actually planned for a corpse to replace him.

But if he wanted to relieve himself from this crushing loneliness he needed to make friends. Or at least have someone to at least be in the same room as him that didn't spit horribly comments at him that only fuelled the angry voices in his head.

He'd need to make new arrangements. Perhaps a nightly hunt would be necessary now.

Gaara wondered if his new guest liked to read. That would be nice, he thought idly. He'd like to share his collection with someone, to show someone his important possessions that had literally saved his life. Share them with someone.

Though Gaara usually kept a tight rein on his emotions, he allowed himself a brief glimmer of hope. Maybe this could be a nice little break from his isolation for a short time. Gaara made sure to keep that hope tightly controlled though, he was after all cursed and curses were not supposed to be enjoyed. He had to keep himself from getting too attached.

Gaara was drawn from his musing when the wind rattled the window violently. He opened the window and listened.

The wind flew past again. Whistling a tune only he could interoperate. It was a warning.

The first stirrings of trouble were starting to happen in one of the villages. Presumably the one where the boy and his ridiculous uncle resided in. His eyes narrowed. This could be troublesome. He'd not had to deal with rioting villagers for some time, but now he had more than himself and a few stone statues to protect. He raised the palm of his hand to the sea of forest that surrounded them all and drew his hand slowly across the horizon. The spells imbedded into the trees tightened and shifted into place.

That should keep them occupied for a while.

Neji was worried. This on it's own was not a strange occurrence; after all he was referred to as "Neji Worry Butler" by the people in the village. Some would call them friends, Neji referred to them as just people he knew.

Lee had not returned from his run.

Neji gripped his hands together tighter as he started out the window from the kitchen bench top. Half expecting and half hoping that Lee would tumble down the path. With a newspaper, fresh bread or flowers he'd simply had to pick as a way to explain his lateness. No such luck.

Neji hadn't initially been concerned when he'd awoken this morning. His drink was waiting for him as it always was and the curtains had been drawn to let in the first rays of light. Sure signs that Lee had been present and able this morning.

When noon rolled around Neji had felt the first twitch of worry start to gnaw at his bones.

Tenten, who had been reading in her chair, had dismissed his concern.

"Maybe something's going on in the village?" She'd said.

Neji's brow frowned.

It was now 4 in the evening, well past the time Lee would stay out with out telling them. Lee was a great communicator when it came to his plans and Neji, who would be the first to admit he was somewhat of a control freak, was rather thankful of this.

"Neji, why don't we go through the village ask if anyone has seen him? If they haven't we can go back around the long way. That'll take us down the route the Lee jogs. We'll find out more that way then you staring out into oblivion." Tenten's voice was calm but authoritative; it cut through Neji's dark thoughts and brought him back to the present.

The only sign he gave that he'd heard her at all was to sand and get his shoes on. Tenten was already standing at the door waiting for him.

As they approached the village they could already tell that nothing exciting or out of the ordinary was happening, though Neji had already dismissed this idea; because if there had been, Lee would have run back home to drag them into the fray as well.

They checked all of Lee's favourite places in the village. Or his more usual haunts at the very least. They checked the bakery, the flowers shop, and the newsstand. Anywhere they could think. They even walked passed the small doctors office to see if he'd come by to speak to Sakura, who worked at the front desk.

"No, I'm sorry I haven't seen him all day. In fact I don't think I've seen Lee since Tuesday."

Well that ruled out the idea that Lee had been in the village for any extended amount of time. If he had been, he would have stopped by to see Sakura.

"Ok, well I guess its time to take the long route home." Neji groused, sticking his hands in his pockets and making his way along the path. Head down. If he did that no one would try to talk to him.

Tenten hummed in agreement. "Who knows, by the time we get back he may have returned." If that turned out to be the case Neji was going to have to punch him.

Tenten had left a note on the kitchen table in case of that eventuality. To prevent the frustrating situation of Lee getting home and then leaving again to go find them or something equally as stupid.

The sound of the villagers, carts and animals soon dwindled out of ear shot and soon they were walking along the twisted path that cut through the forest. Everything was silent; their foot falls muffled by the compacted dirt the path was made of, only breaking occasionally to make a crunching noise when a leaf was trodden on.

Just as they were approaching a fork in the road they noticed something. And as they got closer Tenten's heart started to try and break free from her rib cage.

It was a body.

Even worse. Tenten suddenly recognised him, she'd recognise that man anywhere. In a crowd a thousand strong she'd know that man.

"Uncle Gai!"


End file.
